Sandra Scheinbaum

Are you interested in learning more about being a health coach? Do you have a passion for helping others and a love of learning about health and wellness and are looking for formal training?

Do you want to integrate your previous healthcare training with functional medicine and positive psychology so that you can enter this exciting field of health coaching?

Do you want to learn more about health coaching in order to bring a health coach onto your growing team to better support your clients/patients?

The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy (FMCA) is hosting a webinar on Thu Dec 7 at 7pm CT/8pm ET that will help you figure out if this is right for you. You can register for the webinar here

Here is some information about functional medicine from FMCA and what it means to be a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach:

The Functional Medicine movement is gaining momentum because it applies a holistic approach to health, finds the root causes of disease, and uses diet and lifestyle change to create wellness.

The Functional Medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness.

FMCA built their curriculum to cover everything a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach needs to know to effectively support both the clients with whom they work and the doctors [or nutritionists or other practitioners] with whom they partner.

The 12-month online program grounds coaches in the principles of Functional Medicine and functional nutrition, mind/body medicine, positive psychology, and the art of coaching. Here is an overview of the curriculum

MONTH 1: Coaching Fundamentals and Creating Positive Coaching Relationships: Build a strong foundation with the basics of Positive Psychology techniques and Coaching skills you’ll use to connect with clients and inspire them to make lasting lifestyle changes.

MONTH 2: The Power of the Personal Narrative: Learn about character strengths—both how to work with clients to incorporate their character strengths into the goals they set and the changes they make, as well as how to identify and leverage your own character strengths to strengthen your coaching skills.

MONTH 3: Facilitating Values-Based Lifestyle Change: Help clients through their digestive issues with learning digestion basics and how to balance the microbiome to achieve better health.

MONTH 4: Supporting Digestion and Reducing Inflammation: Understand emotional eating and how stress can cause inflammation; learn how to use the Functional Medicine elimination diet to identify foods that heal and foods that inflame on a case by case basis.

MONTH 5: Improving Communication and Hormone Balance: Recognize and interpret the types of nonverbal communication clients may display, and discover the impact of hormone fluctuations on emotional eating, stress, and blood sugar regulation, so you can help your clients work through these challenges.

MONTH 6: Creating Energy and Resiliency: Learn how implementing specific food and exercise plans with clients can address their unique needs, and learn about energy—from cellular energy production to how the foods we choose affect our energy to using mindfulness meditation to develop resiliency.

MONTH 7: Integrating Detoxification into Your Practice: Learn how toxins relate to illness to ensure safe and appropriate food choices during detox; we cover how to shed toxic thoughts, so you can support clients through safe whole-body detoxification.

MONTH 9: Coaching Strategies for Working Through Emotional Content: Learn about cooking for a healthy mind, and how emotions can influence the way we feel and act; help clients manage the cravings that sometimes accompany their emotions.

MONTH 10: Running Group Wellness and Body Composition Programs: Learn the basic metabolic and hormonal aspects of resistant weight loss, discover how to incorporate food plans and your clients’ character strengths to help them manage their weight, and get the blueprint for both virtual and clinic-based group detox programs.

MONTH 11: Overcoming Challenges with Chronically Ill Clients and Families: Learn about the role of the Health Coach as part of a Functional Medicine collaborative care team, understand how to apply the Positive Psychology model to address complicated client challenges, and keep coaching simple to avoid overwhelming clients.

MONTH 12: Consolidating Learning, Tracking Progress, Preparing to Move On: Become familiar with the ethical guidelines and core competencies you’ll need to know in order to earn your Health Coaching certification, and discuss the business side of coaching as you prepare to move into your next phase.

If you’re ready to deepen your career helping others through your passion for health, or make a career transition (or bring a health coach onto your team), now is the time. You can learn more about this unique program by joining the webinar here. The webinar will be recorded so if you can’t make it live, register anyway and you’ll get the recording sent to you.

If you’re a health coach or an aspiring health coach I want to make sure you know about the new book written by my colleagues Sandra Scheinbaum and Elyse Wagner. They are two of the key leaders in Functional Medicine coaching and founders of Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, a well-regarded learning platform for health coaches around the world.

(You may even find it useful if you’ve worked with a health coach or plan to work with one in the future, and to get a better understanding of Functional Medicine and how it works)

The goal of this book is not only to help you understand the growing role of health coaches, but also to be inspired by the dozens of transformational stories and the impact of Functional Medicine overall.

Here is a snippet from Dr. Mark Hyman’s foreword for the book, describing the important role of health coaches:

Health coaches teach people how to change their diet and live better, more fulfilling lives. They do not act as experts, but educated in Functional Medicine principles and nutrition, they have enough information to guide clients to make better choices and change habits. Coaches provide the key ingredient: social support. The coach, rather than acting as the expert, empowers the client to take charge of his/her health and the two work as a team.

As a nutritionist, I believe that health coaches are an important part of the team for someone who is working with a functional medicine practitioner. This book covers all the important aspects about being a health coach, and why proper training is essential, as well as providing a clear understanding of the value and impact of Functional Medicine.

Dr Hyman sums it up perfectly:

Essentially, individuals engage with coaches to support them, either individually, or in groups. With this type of teamwork, individuals can transform their behavior. They can receive feedback and be held accountable. Health coaches have to be integrated into every facet of the health care system, beginning in the community.

The Functional Medicine movement cannot succeed without Functional Medicine health coaches, as inspiring behavior change is necessary if people are to actually get better. I can tell my patients what to do, but if they don’t do it, it doesn’t matter.

The authors are offering a no-cost Functional Medicine health coaching session for you if you buy the book and register your purchase through the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. You will also have access to the dozens of bonuses being offered by some of the top leaders in the healthcare community.